連續第二年飛往泰國在曼谷的"夏季大厦"舉行ISTD盃師生大賞錦標賽可謂荊棘滿途, 縱然在去年主辦第四屆ISTD盃時勞心勞力, 支出大, 收入少, 我仍然滿腔熱誠繼續在沒有贊助、不理虧損的情況下再次在20/9/08主辦第五屆ISTD盃, 世事難料, 今屆所遭遇的障礙繁多, 節錄如下 :

1.與去年一樣, 世界舞盟 (IDSF) 的泰國屬會下令禁止賽手及裁判参加ISTD

盃, 這件事非常諷刺, 因發出禁制令的泰國IDSF負責人也是ISTD泰國的代理人, 我去信英國投訴, 當然石沈大海 ; (二) 中國深圳在同時期舉行大賽, 令兩位裁判及少部份職業賽手放棄泰國之旅, 為我節省金錢 ; (三) 舉行日期之前泰國政局動亂, 似乎無什影響 ; (四) 代表香港出戰公開職業拉丁舞組的李敏, 19/9/08去到泰國後收到緊急通知要在20/9/08中午前向香港人民入境事務處報到, 非常可惜, 如果我能早一個星期知道這件事, 或能幫她解困 ; (五) 今次起舞藝軒組團往泰國曼谷被投訴經營旅行團, 簡直匪夷所思, 我在協助錄取口供時負責這投訴的警務人員都感到莫名奇妙!  

頭四項障礙我都不會感到有挫折感, 但令我感到沮喪而不想再在海外主辦比賽的是第五項! 我花費無數心血、精神、金錢遠赴泰國主辦這場比賽, 推動舞運, 竟換來官非纏身!  尚幸結果整個賽事無論參賽人數及入場觀眾比上屆都不遑多讓, 算是得到一些安慰。

今年比賽模式跟去年差不多, 裁判團方面卻祇有九位, 包括我太太及我本人, 韓 國的Lee Man Ho, 菲律賓的Jojo Carino, 星加坡的Alice Teo及四位泰國裁判, 原因是有六位原本答應前往曼谷的中、港、台、韓裁判不能成行, 令我無法預料! 19/9/08晚我招待所有香港及其他國家的裁判及賽手參加歡迎晚宴的酒家比去年
的一家更有水準 (價錢當然…..),  20/9/08下午部份的比賽於一時開始直至六時 完結, 誕生師生標準舞及師生拉丁舞冠軍, 香港兩對参加師生拉丁舞組的 Alexanda Yang & Liza Lau 及Mathew Kwok & Amy Zhou實力都非常之强, 祇是 遇上澳洲、星加坡的超級組合, 雖敗猶榮, 分別取得亞軍及季軍的成績。 晚上餐 舞會七時半開始, 由六人現場樂隊伴奏, 晚上十時進行四組最高賽事, 冠軍如下 :

四組冠軍都由 [地頭蟲] 泰國選手囊括, 香港隊在業餘標準舞及職業標準舞組都 能保持上屆的季軍地位, 而業餘拉丁舞組的朱景民、吳煒羚進入第六名及職業拉 丁舞組的張永偉、李秀娟取得第四名, 超越上屆成績, 作為他們的老師我為他們感到驕傲

陳航行

All the way from Hong Kong, organizing ISTD Cup at Summer Mansion, Bangkok, Thailand for two consecutive years are really depressing.  Last year in 4th ISTD Cup, I exhausted my financial, physical and mental resources without any remorse and strived to go ahead to organize the 5th ISTD Cup on 20/9/08 taking no care of the fact that there was no sponsor at all and the income had definitely not enough to cover the expenses.  Unprecedently, we experienced more obstacles for this year and they are as follows :
(i) Same as last year, the Thailand IDSF banned all adjudicators and competitors from joining the ISTD Cup.  The fact was the person in charge of IDSF Thailand and the Thailand Coordinator of Dance Sport Faculty, ISTD England HQ is the same person (Ironic!); (ii) Shenzhen held a big championships on the same weekend - shifted two judges and a few Professional couples from Thailand to China, which in a way saved me some costs (Self-comfort!) ; (iii) The unstable political environment in Thailand prior to the ISTD Cup seemed to do no harm to the whole event (Lucky!) ; (iv) Hong Kong representative Lilian Li who was to compete in the Professional Latin event, received an urgent notice on 19/9/08 after she arrived Bangkok that she had to report to the Hong Kong Immigration Department before noon of 20/9/08.  If this matter was brought to me earlier enough, I might be able to find a solution for her (Self-Promote!) ; (v) Police received a report of Come Dancing Studio Academy running an illegal Tour to Thailand, which sounds unbelievable to me and also to the bewilderment of the police office who recorded a statement from me (Heart-breaking!).

I do not feel frustrated about the first four.  On the contrary, I felt totally upset & depressed in relation to (v) leaving me the thought that I would never want to organize overseas competitions again!  Exhausting money, hard working, mental & spiritual efforts to fly to Thailand organize this specific competition with a view to promoting DanceSport were rewarded with being suspected as a criminal!  Last but not least, the only thing comforted me was the turn-out of competitors and guests were not worse than last year.         

The format of competitions were similar to last year's but we only had nine adjudicators in total this year, namely Mr Lee Man Ho (Korea), Mr Jojo Carino (Philippines),Ms Alice Teo (Singapore), four Thai, my wife and myself.  Unexpectedly, there were six judges from China, Hong Kong, Taiwan and Korea who had accepted the invitations to judge in Bangkok changed their mind eventually.  The Restaurant for the Welcome Dinner on 19/9/08 for all Hong Kong & overseas judges and competitors was much better than the one we went last year (so my purse became ..…….).  Afternoon session competitions on 20/9/08 commenced at 1300 hrs and finished at 1800 hrs.  Pro-Am Standard & Pro-Am Latin Champions were born.  Two very strong couples from Hong Kong - Alexanda Yang & Liza Lau and Mathew Kwok & Amy Zhou entered the Pro-Am Latin event challenging for the title but the Australian Professional Latin Champion David Karla & his Singapore student Patrica Quah had the edge.  Alex & Liza and Mathew & Amy had to be content with 2nd and 3rd Place.  Dinner Party was from 1930 hrs with 6-person Orchestra playing wonderful music to the dancing guests.  At 2200 hrs, the four top events progressed

Hong Kong team maintained the same 3rd Place in Amateur Standard and Professional Standard as last year.  Both couples of mine, Fergus Chu & Cat Ng were 6th in Amateur Latin ; Gary Cheung & Doris Li were 4th in Professional Latin, superseded last year's results.  I am really proud of them!

Lawrence Chan

陳航行、高玉文與香港及中國的選手攝於歡迎晚宴上
Lawrence & Gertrude with their couples from Hong Kong and China at the Welcome Dinner

公開職業拉丁舞頒獎
Open Professional Latin presentation